"Hair on your shoulders, and the age in your eyes" - Safari, Day 3 (28 July 2008)

I've loved that lyric since I "came back" to country music during my last two years of college. If you don't recognize it, here's a YouTube clip of the song being performed. Be warned, though - this is Country country music.

Question: Anyone know who wrote the song? I had it stuck in my head that it was Mel Tillis, but after some brief research think I've got it mixed up with "Ruby, don't take your love to town." (Speaking of great lyrics - "If I could move I'd get my gun and put her in the ground")

We went to the Serengeti today, and now I understand why we're in a Land Rover. The infrastructure here is poor. I grew up driving the occasional dirt road in Arkansas, but nothing was as bad as this, and I'm talking about the entrance to the crown jewel of the Tanzanian National Park system. We spent half the time zig-zagging across the road trying to avoid craters. Our driver was completely beaten up by the jostling from the road.

The Serengeti is different than the other parks, though. We got there late in the afternoon and saw this almost immediately:


Yeah, that's a cheetah. There were two of them there, but it was so crowded we didn't get to where I could get a shot of both of them together.

Then, we drive down the road a little ways, and get this about 5 feet off the side of the road:


Yeah, that's a lioness with three cubs nursing. Evidently there was another one in some bushes that we were too close to see. All in all, a much more exciting day than either park we've been in so far.

And now for something I'm not proud of. I let Jennifer arrange all of this part of the trip, so I didn't realize that we were staying in the actual Serengeti in tents. I was expecting a tented camp, or hoping for something similar to the Tloma house, so when we pulled up I was not happy. I guess it's an object lesson in setting expectations.

Then, a couple of cool things happened. Dinner was outstanding. Both of the previous places were a little frou frou for our tastes, but here we got a pepper steak, some potatoes, and some veggies. Not too far removed from what we'd eat at home.

Next, on the way back to the tent we saw a jackal running through the camp site. It freaked Jennifer out, but I actually thought it was pretty neat.

While we were talking that night, though, I did say "I wish Bruce were here, 'cause then at least I could play some Command and Conquer or Starcraft"